The Daily Dose/April 15, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
California Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released her and her husband’s tax returns for the previous 15 years, joining other Democratic contenders in releasing past returns. Harris’ returns show she and her husband make some pretty good bank. Bully for them.
This move to greater transparency by candidates is nice, but is it our business how much money Kamala Harris and her husband have made the past 15 years? Of course it isn’t. Any citizen’s relationship with the IRS must remain confidential and we’ve always found it fascinating when people want to share their tax history with us. It’s none of our business and, outside of passing curiosity in the matter, I don’t think most people really care. There is no law that requires presidents, vice presidents, or candidates or nominees for these officers – or any other American, for that matter – to release their tax returns. There is a law requiring the Treasury Secretary to release an individual’s return to the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee upon written request, a request currently filed for President Trump and one that he is, typically, resisting.
Trump, of course, has steadfastly declined to release his tax returns, going back to his days as a candidate for the GOP nomination. Good for him. He is under no obligation to do so and this is one of the few times we’ve found ourselves in agreement with the president. As candidates for both the US Senate and House we’ve declined to release our tax returns though, frankly, this has never come up, and we’ve always complied with the relatively innocuous income reporting rules required by the Federal Election Commission.
A citizen’s relationship with the IRS must remain private. If a citizen wants to voluntarily breach that privacy, OK, it’s theirs to breach, but we think if every candidate stopped releasing their tax returns tomorrow, nobody would really care.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has the latest on the scratch paper front at the hotel, and it’s Sunday Spaghetti Night (SSN) at The Shire. Today’s Diary.
Someone – Brandon and I suspect Tammy – has been stapling the scratch paper together at the front desk…Now, our back office stash – now measuring 1.25 inches high -is still kept loose, but at the right monitor stand, I noticed a dozen or sheets stapled together when I went to log in tonight…It was the first Brandon had seen of them and Quentin denied all charges, giving a face that indicated our scratch paper had cooties on it, so Tammy is a pretty good guess, tho I declined to quiz her about it when she came in this morning.
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On This Date
In 1947 – Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers becomes the first black to play major league baseball in the 20th century, playing first base and batting second in the Dodgers season opener at Ebbets Field. Robinson went 0-3 with a run scored as the Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves 5-3. Robinson would bat .297 that first year, with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs in 151 games. The only other black to have played major league baseball before Robinson was Moses Walker, who played 48 games for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the then-major league American Association in 1884.
In 1958 – Major League Baseball debuts on the west coast when the San Francisco Giants defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-0 at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. Having two teams on the west coast presented some scheduling difficulties, and the Giants and Dodgers each would play their first 26 games in California before heading east for road trips that would take them to the other six National League cities, some twice.
In 1944 – So Long Pal and Too Late To Worry, both by Al Dexter, and Ration Blues by Louis Jordan, are all at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart. All three songs were either ending or in the middle of multiple weeks stays at #1 on the country chart and Ration Blues had earlier topped Billboard’s soul chart. Research into other three-way ties at #1 in Billboard’s chart history, and into the number of songs that have topped both the country and soul charts, was inconclusive.
Quotebook
He decided, as usual, that it was wisest that he mind his own business.
Alex Haley
Roots
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Four people – Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt – were executed for their role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. They were hanged on July 7, 1865, at Fort Lewis, in Washington D.C, then known as Washington City.
